Beached Rat Carcasses Indicate Mass Rodent Death During Ida in NYC

quote:

---

“With this particular storm, any rats that were in the sewers were either crushed by the current or were swept out into the rivers,” said Bobby Corrigan, a longtime pest control expert and former ??rodentologist for the NYC Department of Health. “I can’t imagine they would’ve survived.”

---

quote:

---

While there are no reliable counts of New York City’s rats, estimates typically start in the many millions. A significant portion live in the subways and sewers, both of which were swiftly inundated during last week’s historic rainfall.

---

quote:

---

Rats are adept swimmers. But many were likely overmatched by the sudden drenching, a record-breaking 3.15 inches of rain in a single hour. “I would guess hundreds of thousands died, easily,” Corrigan estimated, including “an entire generation of pups,” or rat babies.

---

quote:

---

Yet even as the local rat population has taken a major hit, close observers say that the city’s most reviled and indomitable species has, conversely, become more visible.

---

quote:

---

Several exterminators who spoke to Gothamist/WNYC said that they’d received a spike in complaints since Tropical Storm Ida, as surviving rats seek refuge above-ground, inside private homes and public spaces.

---